1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to product display apparatus and methods for controlling sales and in particular to apparatus for displaying and maintaining trading card type items and a method for promoting sales thereof while providing protection from theft.
2. Prior Art
Display cabinets where products are displayed behind glass fronts or doors are, of course, common and have long been in use. Similarly, display apparatus involving glass doors or sliding panels with locks are well known. Some such apparatus, for example, are shown in a U.S. Patent to Barbieri, U.S. Pat. No. 3,204,774, that shows a counter display box for containing rings and the like, that is covered by a glass panel that can be locked thereover. Such device, of course, require a sales person to open the display to sell an article therefrom, rather than provides a display that a purchaser selects an item from with the purchase taking place at a separate location, as with the invention.
Similar to the above discussed Barbieri Patent, other display apparatus have involved vending machine devices, for example, a U.S. Pat. No. 3,920,100, such vending machine devices have involved different configurations of displays and display racks where sales of articles are made directly from the display, and have provided individual locking of items onto or in the display that must be unlocked to be removed by a sales person with a key to the display. For example, such arrangements are shown in U.S. Patents to Weisblat, U.S. Pat. No. 3,516,719; to Surman, U.S. Pat. No. 3,695,452; and to Foreman, U.S. Pat. No. 4,243,142. In such vending displays, the locks associated therewith must be released by a sales clerk to sell an item therefrom to a customer. Unlike the invention that provides a display only that a customer selects from, but does not purchase from, the invention involving a system that includes a display containing items such as packets of trading cards, with the customer indicating that selection by mark a form that is then taken to a separate store location whereat a sales person selects the desired item from a storage container of the system and sells that item or items to the customer.